Disclaimer: I don't know Yu Yu Hakusho.
-Telepathy-
(Thoughts)
Chapter 22
They ran through the dense foliage, wondering how the serpent was able to follow them. They could hear the flapping of its wings, but they couldn't tell how close it was.
"Is there anyway to beat that thing?" Hiei asked as they ran.
"One," Shiroi said, "but I don't know if it really works."
"What is it?" Hiei demanded.
"You have to take out its eyes first, but that's close to impossible. It's why I said I didn't know if it would work."
"A lot of help that does," Hiei growled.
They continued running, still not sure where the serpent was. Neither of the two wanted to stop, knowing that if they did the serpent would find them and surely kill them.
Shiroi noticed something after another few minutes of running. She couldn't hear the sound of the serpent's wings. "Stop." They slowed to a stop, Shiroi still listening. "Do you hear anything?" she whispered to Hiei.
Hiei listened for a moment. "No."
Shiroi didn't like the sound of that, and she was sure Hiei didn't either. She listened hard, but all she could hear was the sound of her heart pounding and Hiei breathing hard from running. "Where is it?" she whispered.
As if to answer her question, the serpent burst from the trees and bushes in front of them, reared and ready to strike.
"Where'd it come from?" Hiei yelled as he pulled Shiroi closer to him.
Shiroi hadn't the slightest idea, but she knew what she had to do to get rid of it. It was something she hated doing, and had a painful side affect, which was why she had only done it once.
***
Hiei watched as the serpent hissed, venom dripping from its fangs. It was ready to come down and strike, when suddenly its flaming orange eyes dulled. Its hiss was abruptly cut short, and it fell to the ground, unmoving.
"What the?" Hiei gaped in surprise. What happened? He felt Shiroi's tense body relax very suddenly. He looked to see that she looked completely exhausted, and her eyes reflected pain. "Shiroi?"
"I hate killing with my mind," she whispered, and passed out.
Hiei held her up and looked around, wondering what to do. Shelter was the first thing that came to his mind, but where to find it?
He looked around, ignoring the faint hissing as the serpent's venom drain from its fangs and scorched the ground. Hiei moved well out of the venom's way. He noticed a tree with an extremely large hollow in the center of it. It was up high, well out of any ground predator's reach.
Carrying Shiroi, he jumped to a branch that was directly across from it. He looked in the hole to make sure nothing was living in it, especially spiders. He didn't care, but he was sure that Shiroi wouldn't want to wake with a spider or something like that within sight of her.
Once sure there was nothing in there, he hopped from the branch and into the hole. It was just big enough for them to sit in with brushing the top. He leaned back against the side of the hollow and held Shiroi against him. He kept watch for a while, until the day finally caught up with him and he fell asleep.
***
Shiroi was vaguely aware of the subtle movement under her. She opened her eyes. There was some light coming through the large hole near her. Her shoulder was a dull throb, but that was all she felt of it. She went to sit up, and noticed she had been lying against Hiei.
She blushed and sat up quickly, but the demon stayed asleep. (He should know better,) Shiroi thought.
She sat there and rubbed sleep out of her eyes. The headache that had knocked her out that night was gone, but the tainted feeling and the low energy effect were still there.
She had only been sitting up for a minute until Hiei woke up.
"What a night," he grumbled. He noticed Shiroi and asked a little mockingly; "Sleep well?"
Shiroi glared at him, "I'd like to see you kill that serpent with your mind and stay conscious afterwards."
Hiei didn't have a comeback and kept quiet.
Shiroi sighed and crawled to the hole in the tree and climbed to a nearby branch. "I know we're in a forest," she said, "but how far away are we from the village.
Hiei came out behind her and said, "Who knows. The only way we would be able to tell is if we climbed to the top of the tree and see what's around.
Shiroi nodded and the started climbing.
Hiei had to stop and wait several times for Shiroi, since her shoulder was bothering her and she couldn't climb very fast. They finally got to the top of the tree and looked around.
"I don't see any sign of the village," Shiroi said. "Did we really come in that far?"
"We had to have," Hiei said. "From what I can see, we ran in at least ten miles. I know I can do it in that amount of time, but I didn't know you could."
"Nor did I," Shiroi replied. "And we changed directions every so often to try and confuse the serpent, and now we have no idea which direction to go in, or at least I don't."
Hiei shook his head, "I don't know either." He thought for a moment. "How far can you sense a person's spirit energy?"
Shiroi thought for a second, "About eight miles. Sorry, a little short for our distance."
Hiei looked around, and then suggested, "We could go two miles in one direction, and then you could try and see if can sense anything."
"It sounds like the only thing we can do," Shiroi answered. "We might as well. No one in the village will think to come this far in, even Kurama."
"Lets go then," Hiei, said.
Shiroi summoned her wind abilities and rose into the air, and then nearly fell out of the sky. "Shoot!"
Hiei stopped himself from jumping and turned around. "What?"
"Killing with my mind has too many side effects," Shiroi answered. "Along with feeling tainted, the attack causes all of my energies from all of my abilities to drain to their bare minimums, and it takes forever for it all to return. Last time I did it, it tool nearly a month for all of my energies to return, which means I can't fly right now."
"Damn," Hiei muttered. This was going to slow things down. "Guess the only thing I can do is carry you." Shiroi blushed lightly. "Come on." He carried her piggyback and jumped from the treetop.
This was a different experience for Shiroi. She hoped she wasn't slowing Hiei down, but she knew she probably was.
After about twenty minutes, Shiroi felt something and stopped him. She concentrated on which direction the energy was coming from. She pointed east, "I sense it that way." It made sense, since the ceremonial grounds were west of the village.
"Lets go then," Hiei said and launched them from the tree.
***
After nearly an hour, the village was within sight. The direction they were going in was different than Shiroi had expected it to be, and soon she found out why.
Hiei leapt off the top of a tree and they were able to see the end of the forest, right over the frozen lake they had skated on two days before this.
"Got any ideas?" Hiei asked as they descended. "It's going to hurt if we land like this."
Shiroi had an idea. She pushed away from Hiei, and summoned with the last threads of her energies, ice blades on the bottom of their shoes. "Get it?"
Hiei nodded, but wasn't too sure how this was going end.
"When yet hit the ice push off right away so you don't break the ice," Shiroi said.
Hiei understood what to do, he just didn't know if he could do it. They hit the ice, and he did as she had told him. The way he had landed, he was now skating backwards, so he didn't know if he was going to his anyone of anything. Shiroi was face forward, and stopped herself soon after they had landed.
Hiei didn't know how to brake going backwards, and before he could do anything, he hit the bank and tumbled head over heels backwards until he finally rolled to a stop.
"You okay?" Shiroi asked as she ran to him, blades from both of their shoes gone.
Hiei sat up and rubbed his head, "I've had worse." He got to his feet and brushed himself off. "Lets go, unless the others are still looking for us, they're probably sitting around wondering where the hell we are."
Shiroi nodded and they walked up to the road and headed for Elder Sansa's house.
***
"We searched that forest for hours," Yuseke groaned. "But no sign of them."
"Or that serpent," Kurama said.
They were all sitting on the porch of Elder Sansa's house. They had just returned from searching all night for Shiroi and Hiei, but they hadn't found a trace of them.
"We went like five miles into that forest," Kuwabara said. "Nothing at all."
"Maybe because we were ten miles in."
They all looked up to see Shiroi and Hiei standing at the steps.
"Thank goodness you're both okay," Nana said.
"Ten miles in," Yuseke said. "No wonder we didn't find you.
"What about the serpent?" Kurama asked.
"Dead," Hiei answered, "Shiroi killed it."
"With consequences," Shiroi added. "I killed it with my mind, and in doing so I've drained all of my energies down to nothing, and I also feel tainted. I hate doing it, this is only the second time I've done, and you can understand why."
"What were you two doing at that ceremony anyway?" Sansa asked.
"Hey I showed up just before the serpent did," Hiei said, "I didn't even know why Shiroi was there."
"Shiroi!"
Shiroi turned around to see both Anada and Tana running toward them.
"When we saw the serpent attack you we didn't know what was going to happen," Anada said.
"What exactly were you two doing there in the first place?" Tana asked.
"I showed up just before the serpent did," Hiei said again.
"Which means you were there to see the Spirit Flame," Tana said. "That was when the serpent showed up, after the Flames died, so you must have seen them."
"If you're talking about the colored fire that engulfed us," Hiei said, "Then of course I did, who could miss it?"
"Engulfed you?" Anada asked. She and Tana both looked at Shiroi, "But it only engulfs..."
Shiroi gulped, "Yeah I know."
"What?" Yuseke asked, "What the hell are you guys talking about?"
Sansa cleared his throat, "Shiroi, Hiei, Anada, Tana, I need to speak with all of you privately," he looked at all for of them, "Inside please." He looked at Nana, "Would you come too please?"
Nana nodded and they all went inside, leave the rest of them outside to wait.
***
Author's Note: Ah man, still too short for my liking. Oh well, is Shiroi in trouble? Find out in the next chapter. You'll also get some more info on that Spirit Flame.
-Telepathy-
(Thoughts)
Chapter 22
They ran through the dense foliage, wondering how the serpent was able to follow them. They could hear the flapping of its wings, but they couldn't tell how close it was.
"Is there anyway to beat that thing?" Hiei asked as they ran.
"One," Shiroi said, "but I don't know if it really works."
"What is it?" Hiei demanded.
"You have to take out its eyes first, but that's close to impossible. It's why I said I didn't know if it would work."
"A lot of help that does," Hiei growled.
They continued running, still not sure where the serpent was. Neither of the two wanted to stop, knowing that if they did the serpent would find them and surely kill them.
Shiroi noticed something after another few minutes of running. She couldn't hear the sound of the serpent's wings. "Stop." They slowed to a stop, Shiroi still listening. "Do you hear anything?" she whispered to Hiei.
Hiei listened for a moment. "No."
Shiroi didn't like the sound of that, and she was sure Hiei didn't either. She listened hard, but all she could hear was the sound of her heart pounding and Hiei breathing hard from running. "Where is it?" she whispered.
As if to answer her question, the serpent burst from the trees and bushes in front of them, reared and ready to strike.
"Where'd it come from?" Hiei yelled as he pulled Shiroi closer to him.
Shiroi hadn't the slightest idea, but she knew what she had to do to get rid of it. It was something she hated doing, and had a painful side affect, which was why she had only done it once.
***
Hiei watched as the serpent hissed, venom dripping from its fangs. It was ready to come down and strike, when suddenly its flaming orange eyes dulled. Its hiss was abruptly cut short, and it fell to the ground, unmoving.
"What the?" Hiei gaped in surprise. What happened? He felt Shiroi's tense body relax very suddenly. He looked to see that she looked completely exhausted, and her eyes reflected pain. "Shiroi?"
"I hate killing with my mind," she whispered, and passed out.
Hiei held her up and looked around, wondering what to do. Shelter was the first thing that came to his mind, but where to find it?
He looked around, ignoring the faint hissing as the serpent's venom drain from its fangs and scorched the ground. Hiei moved well out of the venom's way. He noticed a tree with an extremely large hollow in the center of it. It was up high, well out of any ground predator's reach.
Carrying Shiroi, he jumped to a branch that was directly across from it. He looked in the hole to make sure nothing was living in it, especially spiders. He didn't care, but he was sure that Shiroi wouldn't want to wake with a spider or something like that within sight of her.
Once sure there was nothing in there, he hopped from the branch and into the hole. It was just big enough for them to sit in with brushing the top. He leaned back against the side of the hollow and held Shiroi against him. He kept watch for a while, until the day finally caught up with him and he fell asleep.
***
Shiroi was vaguely aware of the subtle movement under her. She opened her eyes. There was some light coming through the large hole near her. Her shoulder was a dull throb, but that was all she felt of it. She went to sit up, and noticed she had been lying against Hiei.
She blushed and sat up quickly, but the demon stayed asleep. (He should know better,) Shiroi thought.
She sat there and rubbed sleep out of her eyes. The headache that had knocked her out that night was gone, but the tainted feeling and the low energy effect were still there.
She had only been sitting up for a minute until Hiei woke up.
"What a night," he grumbled. He noticed Shiroi and asked a little mockingly; "Sleep well?"
Shiroi glared at him, "I'd like to see you kill that serpent with your mind and stay conscious afterwards."
Hiei didn't have a comeback and kept quiet.
Shiroi sighed and crawled to the hole in the tree and climbed to a nearby branch. "I know we're in a forest," she said, "but how far away are we from the village.
Hiei came out behind her and said, "Who knows. The only way we would be able to tell is if we climbed to the top of the tree and see what's around.
Shiroi nodded and the started climbing.
Hiei had to stop and wait several times for Shiroi, since her shoulder was bothering her and she couldn't climb very fast. They finally got to the top of the tree and looked around.
"I don't see any sign of the village," Shiroi said. "Did we really come in that far?"
"We had to have," Hiei said. "From what I can see, we ran in at least ten miles. I know I can do it in that amount of time, but I didn't know you could."
"Nor did I," Shiroi replied. "And we changed directions every so often to try and confuse the serpent, and now we have no idea which direction to go in, or at least I don't."
Hiei shook his head, "I don't know either." He thought for a moment. "How far can you sense a person's spirit energy?"
Shiroi thought for a second, "About eight miles. Sorry, a little short for our distance."
Hiei looked around, and then suggested, "We could go two miles in one direction, and then you could try and see if can sense anything."
"It sounds like the only thing we can do," Shiroi answered. "We might as well. No one in the village will think to come this far in, even Kurama."
"Lets go then," Hiei, said.
Shiroi summoned her wind abilities and rose into the air, and then nearly fell out of the sky. "Shoot!"
Hiei stopped himself from jumping and turned around. "What?"
"Killing with my mind has too many side effects," Shiroi answered. "Along with feeling tainted, the attack causes all of my energies from all of my abilities to drain to their bare minimums, and it takes forever for it all to return. Last time I did it, it tool nearly a month for all of my energies to return, which means I can't fly right now."
"Damn," Hiei muttered. This was going to slow things down. "Guess the only thing I can do is carry you." Shiroi blushed lightly. "Come on." He carried her piggyback and jumped from the treetop.
This was a different experience for Shiroi. She hoped she wasn't slowing Hiei down, but she knew she probably was.
After about twenty minutes, Shiroi felt something and stopped him. She concentrated on which direction the energy was coming from. She pointed east, "I sense it that way." It made sense, since the ceremonial grounds were west of the village.
"Lets go then," Hiei said and launched them from the tree.
***
After nearly an hour, the village was within sight. The direction they were going in was different than Shiroi had expected it to be, and soon she found out why.
Hiei leapt off the top of a tree and they were able to see the end of the forest, right over the frozen lake they had skated on two days before this.
"Got any ideas?" Hiei asked as they descended. "It's going to hurt if we land like this."
Shiroi had an idea. She pushed away from Hiei, and summoned with the last threads of her energies, ice blades on the bottom of their shoes. "Get it?"
Hiei nodded, but wasn't too sure how this was going end.
"When yet hit the ice push off right away so you don't break the ice," Shiroi said.
Hiei understood what to do, he just didn't know if he could do it. They hit the ice, and he did as she had told him. The way he had landed, he was now skating backwards, so he didn't know if he was going to his anyone of anything. Shiroi was face forward, and stopped herself soon after they had landed.
Hiei didn't know how to brake going backwards, and before he could do anything, he hit the bank and tumbled head over heels backwards until he finally rolled to a stop.
"You okay?" Shiroi asked as she ran to him, blades from both of their shoes gone.
Hiei sat up and rubbed his head, "I've had worse." He got to his feet and brushed himself off. "Lets go, unless the others are still looking for us, they're probably sitting around wondering where the hell we are."
Shiroi nodded and they walked up to the road and headed for Elder Sansa's house.
***
"We searched that forest for hours," Yuseke groaned. "But no sign of them."
"Or that serpent," Kurama said.
They were all sitting on the porch of Elder Sansa's house. They had just returned from searching all night for Shiroi and Hiei, but they hadn't found a trace of them.
"We went like five miles into that forest," Kuwabara said. "Nothing at all."
"Maybe because we were ten miles in."
They all looked up to see Shiroi and Hiei standing at the steps.
"Thank goodness you're both okay," Nana said.
"Ten miles in," Yuseke said. "No wonder we didn't find you.
"What about the serpent?" Kurama asked.
"Dead," Hiei answered, "Shiroi killed it."
"With consequences," Shiroi added. "I killed it with my mind, and in doing so I've drained all of my energies down to nothing, and I also feel tainted. I hate doing it, this is only the second time I've done, and you can understand why."
"What were you two doing at that ceremony anyway?" Sansa asked.
"Hey I showed up just before the serpent did," Hiei said, "I didn't even know why Shiroi was there."
"Shiroi!"
Shiroi turned around to see both Anada and Tana running toward them.
"When we saw the serpent attack you we didn't know what was going to happen," Anada said.
"What exactly were you two doing there in the first place?" Tana asked.
"I showed up just before the serpent did," Hiei said again.
"Which means you were there to see the Spirit Flame," Tana said. "That was when the serpent showed up, after the Flames died, so you must have seen them."
"If you're talking about the colored fire that engulfed us," Hiei said, "Then of course I did, who could miss it?"
"Engulfed you?" Anada asked. She and Tana both looked at Shiroi, "But it only engulfs..."
Shiroi gulped, "Yeah I know."
"What?" Yuseke asked, "What the hell are you guys talking about?"
Sansa cleared his throat, "Shiroi, Hiei, Anada, Tana, I need to speak with all of you privately," he looked at all for of them, "Inside please." He looked at Nana, "Would you come too please?"
Nana nodded and they all went inside, leave the rest of them outside to wait.
***
Author's Note: Ah man, still too short for my liking. Oh well, is Shiroi in trouble? Find out in the next chapter. You'll also get some more info on that Spirit Flame.